


Modern (In)Conveniences

by OmoYasha



Series: Omovember 2020 [16]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Fainting, Gen, Miscommunication, Omorashi, Sensory Overload, Swearing, Wetting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:55:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27893428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmoYasha/pseuds/OmoYasha
Summary: Omovember Day 19: Weird/confusing toilet“…do you still have to pee?” she asked, halfway between confusion and curiosity.InuYasha sputtered, cheeks flushing pink.*Smooth.*-Or: InuYasha goes to an amusement park with Kagome and her family!  Only... there are a few details of modern life he DOESN'T want to ask about, and a few personal facts he DOES NOT want to share.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome & InuYasha, Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha
Series: Omovember 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1998742
Comments: 15
Kudos: 25





	Modern (In)Conveniences

**Author's Note:**

> HOOOO BOY this is a long one!  
> I have wanted to write this for so long. :)  
> To start off with: This is a piss fic, there is no sexual content to speak of, 100% pee and swearing and slightly dirty humor.
> 
> Also, right off the bat - YES, InuYasha is wearing pink in this fic, because I read the manga rather than watch the anime, and I am 99.9999% convinced that his outfit in the manga is intended to be pink, even though it's red in the anime, for reasons I go into here: https://omoyasha.tumblr.com/post/634473751497621504/let-inuyasha-be-pink  
> That said, it's only mentioned a couple times, so imagine him how you want.
> 
> I did a weirdly large amount of research for this fic, which I will get into more in the end notes.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Hey, Kagome.”

Kagome stopped, halfway to the “you are here” sign, and turned on her heel to face InuYasha, slightly surprised.

He’d been acting a little weird all morning, but a little weirdness was to be expected… new situations threw him off, and crowds, and it wasn’t as if he’d ever been to a modern amusement park before! She still had no idea how her mother had convinced him to come along on their outing, instead of dragging her along with _him_ back to the feudal era.

But Mama Higurashi had worked her magic, and now the hanyou was following Kagome around the park like an extremely attention-grabbing shadow, filled with curiosity and a minimum of bad will.

It was fun, watching him explore things like a little kid, alternating between wide-eyed fascination, and intense suspicion.

He was kind of jumpy and tense, but she wrote that off as a reaction to the crowds and loud machinery, neither of which seemed like they’d be fully in his comfort zone. Weird, but normal weird.

He hadn’t broken anything or threatened anyone or even yelled at any hapless amusement park employees or fellow patrons, and he also hadn’t gotten fed up and insisted on leaving.

He even seemed to be enjoying himself at times.

As far as outings with InuYasha in her time went, they were doing _great_. She wasn’t going to waste that worrying about weird-but-not-odd-FOR-HIM behavior.

InuYasha was actually pretty interesting to spend time with, on the rare occasions that he slowed down enough to stop hassling everyone with his impatience, and didn’t decide to be deliberately rude instead. Interesting in a fun way, even, rather than his usual “well that was exciting, now let’s never do it again” impressions.

She was happy to enjoy the reprieve from his – admittedly reasonable but still very annoying – fixation on the jewel shards. He was almost _calm_. InuYasha was _never_ calm. Excited or fierce or bored… but _chill?_ He certainly hadn’t been any kind of calm or cooperative when he hopped through the well that morning, just impatient and bad tempered.

When she’d asked her mama in amazement how she’d managed to do _that_ – to get him to change on a dime, and in under five minutes, no less – her mom had just laughed.

“Ah, well… chalk it up to ‘mom magic’, I suppose!”

“Mom magic? What do you mean? I don’t think he even _has_ a mom!”

Kagome gaped, only to be met by a raised eyebrow from her mother.

“Kagome, dear, please think about what you just said. I imagine that makes it work _better_.”

She was… a little bit chastened, at that. Remembering his reaction to the Mu’Onna, back when they’d first met; how oddly easily he’d fallen under its illusions, how stubbornly he’d refused to discuss it later.

It was pretty obvious that InuYasha didn’t understand Kagome’s delays to visit her family because _he_ didn’t _have_ any family worth visiting. The only relative she’d ever heard him mention in present tense was Sesshoumaru, and… it was pretty obvious that there was some bad history there.

InuYasha was always on the edges of things, always alone. It wasn’t unintentional; he was so rude and disinterested in most of the humans around him that it was obvious he preferred it that way.

But preferred it to what?

It hadn’t occurred to her before, with his dismissive attitude toward anything soft or friendly or gentle, that obligatory family time might be something he _missed_. 

But… whatever her mom had said to him _worked_ , because there he was, going along with their silly vacation day with… about as much grace as he ever had for anything.

It was nice.

They’d already discovered that he hated roller coasters – amusingly, not because of the speed, but the noise and the restricted movement imposed by the safety bar.

He was _great_ at carnival games, and they seemed to appeal to his competitive spirit even though he couldn’t care less about the prizes.

As a result, Kagome was now the proud owner of a large white dog plushie (which she found hysterically funny but tried very hard not to laugh at, knowing he’d take it badly), and they had made a string of small children very happy with sudden gifts.

But for the last little while he’d been… oddly reserved. Not paying as much attention. _That_ was weird weird, not just InuYasha weird, and it didn’t sit quite right. So when he said her name, she was quick to stop and give him her attention.

“Yeah?” she asked, tilting her head. He looked a little uncomfortable, frowning.

“I, uh.” He hesitated, eyes flicking to her and then away.

“Where’s the gong?” he said, voice going a bit mumbly halfway through.

Kagome blinked.

InuYasha was always asking her what words meant, complaining about how she “talked weird”. And she got the impression that even by feudal standards, his vocabulary was maybe not the most sophisticated.

He used words she didn’t understand, sure… but most of the time his tone of voice (and the way Sango and Miroku reacted when she asked) told her that maybe they weren’t words she _needed_ to know. Last time she’d asked Miroku what exactly InuYasha was shouting at Sesshoumaru, the monk had cleared his throat – expression torn between laughter and embarrassment – and politely suggested that she consider learning new vocabulary from himself or Sango instead.

This was the first time he’d used a word in conversation where she flat out had _absolutely no clue_ what he was talking about. Did she mishear him? What had he even _said_?

“Excuse me, what?”

There was a pause, and then InuYasha made that same face he made when he realized he just insulted her by accident, and said quickly,

“Um. I mean… the…” He seemed to struggle for a moment to come up with a word.

“…easement?”

She just stared at him.

“What are you _talking_ about?”

Now he was looking at _her_ funny, too.

“The, uh… the river house?”

He made an exasperated noise when she continued to stare at him blankly.

“You know! The place where people… with the _sticks?_ ”

Even more confused, Kagome shook her head. There was no river around here as far as she knew, and _sticks?_ InuYasha was clearly talking about something specific, but her imagination was utterly failing to connect the bits and pieces of his disjointed description into anything useful.

“What sticks?”

“The sticks for – “ he stopped, shook his head with a frustrated growl.

“I’m trying to say I have to _piss_ , okay?! Where do I go for _that?”_ He snapped, loudly enough that a stranger walking by with a stroller shot them both a dirty look.

“You have to… OH.”

Kagome took a moment to reorganize her understanding of the situation.

“Oh! Um. We call that the toilet, here.”

She paused.

“And there aren’t any sticks.”

InuYasha shrugged impatiently.

“It’s, uh. Over here.”

She dragged him over to the nearest bathrooms. He looked at the two doors in confusion.

“You want that one.” Kagome clarified, indicating the men’s room. She could already imagine the chaos if he casually walked into the women’s restroom, and it seemed unfortunately likely, given past experiences.

He shrugged again – with a typical “Keh!” – and walked into the _correct_ bathroom.

Kagome went over to look at a nearby souvenir stand, knowing he’d have no trouble tracking her down, and mildly amused by the confusion. It was a little bit funny, remembering a flustered InuYasha shouting what he needed for the whole world to hear.

Good thing they got that one sorted out!

* * *

InuYasha walked through the indicated door, shoving it open with slightly more force than necessary.

He refused to admit to being embarrassed by the awkward discussion with Kagome, _or_ to his relief that she _wasn’t_ annoyed at him for using such a casual word at first.

He’d rather only admit to his annoyance that _none_ of the words he remembered matched with hers.

Admittedly, it had been a very long time since he’d _needed_ to discuss that kind of thing with anyone else in anything more than the vaguest terms – a benefit of living alone if ever there was one.

Kind of like the benefit of avoiding filthy human toilet areas.

Still, he hadn’t lived out in the woods _forever_ – he did grow up in a human settlement, when he was a little brat, and he _did_ know polite words to refer to those things, even if it took him a bit to remember.

It didn’t take him _any_ time to remember how much he hated the places though.

 _That_ was something seared vividly into his childhood memories – hiding his face in his mother’s sleeve to avoid the stench of too many people using the same place for the same smelly task, river water to clear it or no. The gentle scoldings he got for complaining, and the insistence that he use it anyways whenever he was home – a mandate that did absolutely nothing but encourage his natural proclivity for playing in the forests outside.

He had the vague hope, as he stepped through the door, that (like other things in Kagome’s time) the smell would be better – or at least different, although he knew it was probably similar.

He didn’t expect it to be somehow _worse._

He almost choked, taking his first breath of the air inside, and immediately wrinkled his nose, covering his mouth with a sleeve.

This place was _disgusting!_

He wasn’t sure if his memory was off because it had been so long since he’d subjected himself to this, or if the more open ventilation in the toilet areas of his childhood simply allowed the foul odor to dissipate better, but… eugh!

He _did_ have to go though, so – breathing as shallowly as possible – he stepped further inside and looked around.

He could hear running water, which was reassuring.

…that was pretty much where the familiarity ended.

There were doors along one side of the room, but they were all shut. Past them, the… “sinks”, he thought? That he’d seen at Kagome’s house before.

That, and some kind of strange white basin set into the wall, a drain at the bottom.

He stared as a human man walked up to one of them, did… _something_ , with the front of his pants, and… stood in front of the thing, pissing in it? With all his clothes still in place.

What the _fuck?_

The man he’d been staring at glanced at him with an odd expression.

“Hey kid! What do you think you’re looking at?”

“You?” He answered, without hesitation. He was still staring at the guy’s piss stream, he wasn’t exactly being subtle.

“I’ve never seen anything like _that_ before.” he added as explanation, squinting dubiously at the whole scene.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the man shot back with a glare.

Oh. He seemed angry, for some reason. He must have said something wrong – probably better to clarify.

“It’s just so… weird.”

 _“What?”_ the other man growled.

Oh. Yeah, that probably wasn’t clear enough either, huh.

He glanced back at the guy’s groin. The opening in the cloth was _tiny_. How the hell was he _doing_ that without getting piss all over himself?

“How do you even… _you know_ , when it’s so SMALL?”

“What the FUCK, man!” the guy yelled.

He looked like he’d want to punch InuYasha if he weren’t in the middle of pissing like a horse, and _that_ was a look the hanyou had a _lot_ of practice reading (well, maybe not the piss part, but he was _very_ familiar with the faces people made when they really wanted to beat the shit out of him).

What was his _problem?_

He glanced around. Four or five other men stood around the room, arms crossed and glaring at him.

….oh.

They all looked pretty ticked off. He… wasn’t exactly in a hurry to pick a fight with a bunch of humans, even if there _wasn’t_ anything much they could do that might hurt him.

Maybe especially because of that.

Kagome really didn’t like him fighting with people here in her time, anyways.

And if he got in a fight with six guys who all thought he was human and wiped the floor with them (which he definitely would) he’d absolutely come off like an even bigger asshole than usual, wouldn’t he?

Well, crap.

He didn’t even understand what they were so upset about!

With a last wary glance around at the furious humans, InuYasha gave an aggrieved huff, and – without taking his eyes off them – slowly backed out of the room.

“Oh, there you are!” Kagome greeted him cheerfully when he caught up to her, taking deep breaths of the infinitely fresher air.

“Did everything go alright?”

He scowled, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Men are _fucking weird, okay?!_ ”

Kagome snorted, peeking at him from the corner of her eye with a deadpan expression.

“Well, it’s not like that’s anything new…”

He growled slightly, and she laughed, amusement dancing in her eyes.

“Come on, then. There’s a game I think you might like…”

* * *

They played a few more games, and he let her drag him along on a ride that looked terrible, but she insisted was good (it was not, and he told her so, at which point she said his face was more fun than the ride. He wasn’t sure if he should be offended, by that).

But by the time they were done with that, he was beginning to realize that there _might_ have been a serious problem with his impulsive decision to leave the toilets to avoid a fight. Because, well… obviously, there’d been a reason he’d gone in there in the first place.

He _did_ need to take a leak, and it was really making it hard to focus on what Kagome was saying to him, chattering and explaining things happily as they walked along. He had to go _bad_.

“-nuYasha?” her voice shook him out of his thoughts, and he jerked to a stop, realizing she’d quit walking and turned to face him.

“Yeah?” he responded, still somewhat distracted.

“Are you okay? You’re normally more excited when I talk about getting food…”

“I’m fine!” He said, maybe a touch too defensively, because she squinted at him with that deep, scrutinizing look.

He fidgeted – both under the pressure of scrutiny, and the fact that standing still was _really not helping._ He crossed his arms.

“Keh, it’s fine.” he mumbled, not really sure how else to respond.

“Let’s just go. You said your mom is over there, right?”

Not waiting for an answer, he started walking again, stride a bit stiff. He didn’t look at Kagome, but he could hear her rapid footsteps catching up to him nonetheless.

They walked in silence for a long moment, and then Kagome stopped abruptly, with the tiny little “ooh” sound she made under her breath when she solved a puzzle.

He hesitated.

“…do you still have to pee?” she asked, halfway between confusion and curiosity.

InuYasha sputtered, cheeks flushing pink.

_Smooth._

“But didn’t you do that already?”

He could feel his skin heating up, and he glanced away evasively, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Kagome was expecting an explanation. He couldn’t very well explain the situation to her – not only would it be _way_ too graphic to say to a girl, he didn’t even fully understand _himself,_ much less how to describe it!

She waited expectantly, patient and curious. Flustered, he finally snapped,

“How is it supposed to – it’s on the _wall_?!”

Kagome blinked at him.

He gestured at his waist irritably.

“It’s on the wall! How do you – _my pants don’t work like that, Kagome!_ ”

He _knew_ she’d worn hakama before, and it took a bit, but he could see the moment she understood.

“Ohhhh…” she said in understanding, and raised a finger to her lips thoughtfully.

“Did you try in the stalls?”

“The what?”

He side-eyed her. He was not a freaking _horse_.

“The stalls, with the doors on them.” She explained.

“They should have toilets more like the one at my house. You’ve seen that one, right?”

“Yeah?”

He _had_ seen the appliance in question, and had figured out something of what it must be for based on the faint scent of the water.

…he hadn’t really put much thought into _how_ it was meant to be used. But at least it seemed vastly more doable than _whatever the fuck_ those things on the _wall_ were meant to be.

“That’d probably work better for you. There’s a restroom over by where we’re meeting Mama and Souta… you can go do that, and I’ll hang around outside so we don’t miss them!”

He nodded, still distinctly flustered, but glad she wasn’t making this any weirder than it already was. She didn’t even comment on the brisk pace he set toward the area in question.

After a brief redirect from Kagome (he really didn’t understand _why_ it was so important which side of the building he went in – they both looked and smelled almost identical – but he really didn’t feel like stopping to ask) he stepped into the room.

It was basically identical to the last one, with a few key differences: there were (thankfully) an entirely different set of human men inside, and (unthankfully) it absolutely fucking _reeked_ , even worse than the first place had.

He covered his nose, barely breathing. That smell was almost enough to knock him off his feet all by itself!

InuYasha briefly considered leaving, but the heavy ache inside him reminded him why he came in in the first place. It was either this, or wait around until the Higurashi family decided to return to the shrine… and much as he’d _like_ to do that, he had no idea whatsoever when that would be.

Kagome had called this an “all-day trip”, and while he knew she used the phrase “all-day” a bit less literally than he did, they’d only been here a few hours.

Even Kagome could not possibly interpret this as having been “all-day” yet, with the sun still high in the sky… they wouldn’t be leaving for some time yet.

And he was not about to ask all of them to _go home early_ just for him – not when he’d have to explain that it was because he _couldn’t handle_ a human _outhouse_.

InuYasha didn’t get embarrassed very easily, but that? That was embarrassing even for him.

So he rejected the possibility, and went straight into one of the “stalls”, taking a moment to slide the (annoyingly loose) little bar into its setting to latch the door. At least _that_ was a familiar concept.

Then he looked at the toilet, and stopped.

Okay, this was… confusing as fuck.

There was water inside it, which made sense. And he knew from messing with the one at Kagome’s house that when you moved the lever, water flowed hard – he didn’t understand _how_ , but that part also made sense – like dumping a bucket of water to help flush out the kind he’d used before

But… it was raised almost to waist height. Why?

_HOW?_

He tried to imagine how one was expected to use the stupid thing.

From what Kagome said, it was different from what the guys were doing outside. Which made sense – that probably wouldn’t work too well for a girl. …would it?

Shaking the mental image of Kagome casually peeing in one of those damn wall toilets out of his head before he died from awkwardness, he threw that idea soundly in the garbage pile of his mind. He might not be an expert on girls, but that seemed pretty fucking unlikely – and besides, even _thinking_ about that seemed like the kind of thing Kagome would shout him into the next lifetime over if she knew.

But… if that wasn’t right, how _was_ it supposed to work? Maybe it was supposed to be sat on, or straddled?

But that would require completely undressing, or at least taking his pants off. There was nowhere convenient to set them, which meant that probably wasn’t right – and like hell was he letting his clothes touch any surface of this disgusting place if he could help it. At risk of sounding like his asshole brother, he didn’t want to stink all day.

Smelling like humans was one thing. He drew the line at smelling like human _shit_.

Maybe he’d better see how other people were doing it?

He hopped onto the toilet, and peered over the edge of the wall at the person he could hear in the stall beside him.

An angry shout convinced him to drop back down quickly, but what he saw was _not_ promising.

First of all, it seemed like the other guy was using it for something, uh… different, from what he needed to do. But also, there was no way _that_ was going to work for him, unless he wanted the joy of all his clothing touching the filthy floor.

He just had to piss – there _had_ to be a way of making this work. Maybe if he squatted on it?

…that could work. It made more sense than anything else he’d thought of, and it wasn’t too different from how he’d normally do this.

That had to be right – and even if it wasn’t, it’d _work_ , and it wasn’t like anyone was watching to judge him for peeing weird. He was starting to get a little lightheaded from breathing shallowly to avoid the stench – now that he had a plan of attack, he wanted to hurry up, take a leak, and get out of here as fast as physically possible.

Carefully perching with his feet on either side of the water, he loosened up the ankle of his pants leg, and quickly adjusted things so he could go without getting any of his clothing caught in the way.

Normally, he’d relax at this point – he wasn’t normally in _that much_ of a hurry to piss. But right now he just wanted to get out of here to somewhere with air that didn’t feel like it was punching him in the face with every breath, no matter how shallowly he breathed through his mouth or covered his nose.

So instead he stayed tense, and concentrated on trying to relieve himself as quickly as possible.

Which… looking back on it, was probably a bad plan when he was already halfway holding his breath. Because the last thing he remembered was the dizzy feeling of the world spinning around him, unable to find a wall to brace himself against despite the close quarters.

* * *

Souta pushed open the bathroom door, curious what he was about to find.

He and his mom had spotted Kagome hanging around near the bathrooms on their way to meet up by the picnic tables. She’d been halfway through explaining that she was just waiting for InuYasha to come out of the bathroom, when she was interrupted by a loud crash, and muffled yelling from the men’s room.

There was a moment of silence; Kagome exchanged a look with their mom. And then his mama had turned to him and said,

“Souta dear, would you mind checking if InuYasha is alright in there?”

As the only boy in the family, Souta was used to being volunteered to say, check if Grandpa was okay in the shower. It was a little odd to do the same for a guy who barely looked older than his sister – although he supposed (with a giggle at the thought) InuYasha _technically_ was older than Grandpa, wasn’t he? Even if he _really_ didn’t act like it.

Nothing was ever boring when InuYasha visited, so Souta definitely expected to find something going on in there, and it did not let him down.

Inside the bathroom was… definitely something. InuYasha was sprawled on the floor, halfway inside a toilet stall, passed out cold amid a semi-circle of concerned, murmuring men and boys.

As Souta watched, startled, his golden eyes groggily blinked open, and he took a breath… and immediately started coughing and sputtering violently, eyes tearing up.

A kind looking older man among the crowd asked if they should do something, stepping closer, and Souta realized that _he’d_ better do something.

InuYasha _did not_ like strangers crowding him or touching him. That much was clear from his reactions, and from the way Kagome talked – and if it hadn’t been before, it would’ve been after watching his discomfort on the crowded train that morning.

InuYasha was also really strong, and tended to overreact to things, especially when he was startled.

This was a disaster waiting to happen, wasn’t it?

He pushed through the crowd.

“Inu-no-oniichan!” he called, crouching next to where the older boy was propping himself up on his elbow, still coughing hard.

“Are you okay?”

InuYasha focused on Souta. He looked pale, the way Kagome did when she was sick and trying not to puke.

“Do you two know each other?” the nice old man asked.

“He’s my brother!” Souta answered, deciding it was easier than explaining exactly where his sister’s boyfriend stood in relationship to him.

The man looked them over, probably taking in how young Souta was, or maybe the fact that they looked absolutely nothing alike.

“He just needs to go outside.” He said, hoping it was true.

“Right Inu-nii?” The last part was directed at InuYasha, who managed a frantic nod.

“My big sister is outside, with Mama.” he added, to reassure the gentleman.

“Here,” he said, grabbing InuYasha’s hand to help him up. The hanyou took it, grabbing a little too hard so that his claws dug in – and _okay_ , that kind of hurt a little. But InuYasha let go as soon as he was on his feet… and promptly staggered and nearly fell over again, barely catching himself on the wall.

Now that he was standing up, panting shallowly through his mouth, Souta could see a strange shadow on his clothing, and a puddle where he’d been on the floor, and… oh.

That wasn’t just a shadow, was it?

InuYasha seemed so out of it, he wondered if _InuYasha_ had even noticed. He was about to say something – ask if he wanted to stay here a minute and try to clean up somehow before they went out, or have Souta go get him some clean clothes (Souta still vividly remembered the third grade field trip where _he’d_ wet his pants, and how one of the older boys had done something similar for him) – but InuYasha made an attempt for the door before he could, and Souta quickly ducked under his arm so he wouldn’t end up on the floor again.

“I’ll help!” he offered, and figured it probably meant InuYasha _really_ needed the help when he didn’t argue.

It was an awkward walk to the door, despite the close distance. InuYasha was definitely wobbly on his feet, and Souta – only coming about up to his collarbone – was not exactly the best choice of person to steady him. But they managed to make it out the back door, and as soon as they were a few steps past the threshold, InuYasha stopped and leaned against the wall, taking deep, gulping breaths of air.

Whatever was going on, being outside _did_ seem to help, and InuYasha was quick to recover, breathing more steadily and letting go of the bricks. Souta waited, assuming he’d explain the situation once he felt up for it, or at least react somehow.

His question from earlier was sort of answered a moment later, because InuYasha stiffened… and Souta was pretty sure he could see _exactly_ the moment the situation fully registered to the hanyou, his eyes wide as his face briefly flitting through expressions Souta couldn’t quite catch, settling on something unreadable. Then he did that _thing_ where he jumped several people lengths away in one movement, almost too fast to track, crouching in the branches of a nearby tree – and that never stopped being cool to watch, even when it was also annoying.

“Hey, where are you going?!” he called.

“ _Home_.” InuYasha said shortly.

“Aren’t you gonna say goodbye to Kagome or anything?”

Souta didn’t get a response to that, because InuYasha was gone by the time he got halfway through the sentence, vanishing into the breeze with a rustle of leaves. With a sigh, the boy headed back to the other side of the building to meet his family.

* * *

“All park employees, please be on the lookout for –“ the visitor center staff turned to Kagome. “What did you say your friend looks like?”

“He’s a little older than me, and he’s got long white hair, and his clothes are very old fashioned and all pink. Basically he looks like he’s cosplaying?” she answered sheepishly.

The employee relayed the information over the intercom, adding that he might have gotten into a staff only area, and to page his family if he was found so they could come find him. Kagome gave him appropriate thanks, and left to start looking herself, knowing Mama and Souta were doing the same.

From Souta’s description, InuYasha must have been – she pointedly did _not_ think “sick as a dog” – feeling pretty bad. And even if he was fine… they’d taken a thirty minute train ride to get here. She didn’t think even InuYasha could manage to track his way home on foot, given that he had absolutely no idea how to read a public transport timetable.

She just hoped he was still around the park when _he_ realized that, instead of off in some random corner of Tokyo.

Where was the most appealing location in the park for her antisocial, half-wild hanyou? She looked around… and her eyes landed on the taller, thicker stand of trees separating two areas. _There_. If he was still in the park, he’d be there.

Following her gut instinct was rewarded when – after resolutely ignoring an “employees only” sign and ducking under a fence – she caught a flash of silver and cherry-blossom pink between the branches.

He didn’t run away as she came closer, but he also made no move to come down from his perch high among the leaves.

“Are you okay?” she called up softly, leaning against the trunk.

“Souta said you were sick in the bathroom.”

He didn’t say anything, so she asked directly,

“What happened? You don’t get sick easily…”

She could hear him huff.

“Keh - it’s stupid.” He mumbled after a moment.

“Try me.”

There was a long, long pause, and then InuYasha said, in a pressured rush,

“It’s the smell! It smelled like shit in there, and I didn’t want to breathe it, but that just made it worse. Fuckin’ knocked out by that _stink_.”

She stifled a laugh – he really did look ridiculous, the few times she’d seen him one hit KO’d by a noxious smell. But she knew it was uncomfortable for him, and if he was hiding in a tree, odds were good he wasn’t in a mood to see the humor.

“Is that all? That doesn’t seem worth hiding up in a tree over. I didn’t realize the men’s toilets smelled _that_ bad, but…”

InuYasha didn’t respond, and she wished she could get a good look at him. She had no doubt that, if she could see his ears, they’d be pinned low to his head right now, looking miserable. But she wanted to see his expression.

“Come on down. If you don’t want to stay here, it’s fine, we can go home together.”

* * *

InuYasha was panicking.

He’d _been_ panicking, ever since his head had cleared and he stopped coughing long enough to register how the breeze chilled the wet fabric against his skin, register what that _meant_.

His first impulse – as it often was with issues fighting could not solve – was to run.

He couldn’t imagine discussing _this_ with Kagome, couldn’t imagine her reaction. Would she be angry? Would she think he was pitiful? Anything he could imagine was equally intolerable.

He wanted to run away – back through the well, back to _his_ forest, where he understood how things worked, where he could wash without _surprises_ and pretend this never happened.

He wanted to run, so he did.

Only… he had to circle a while, nose too blinded by the stench to catch the trace of which direction they’d come through the maze of streets. And once it had started to recover, he’d realized…

…they’d come here on one of the trains Kagome liked so much.

The distance wasn’t an issue, but he _didn’t_ know his way around. And there wouldn’t be a proper trail to follow like he usually did.

…he still didn’t want to stay and talk.

So, unable to face Kagome, but also unable to _leave_ , he’d found a quieter part of the park grounds, hiding in the tree branches. He hadn’t really had a plan, beyond “stop panicking like a complete coward”.

And then Kagome came, and she was _worried._

So he gave her the simplest, least embarrassing explanation of what went down in the toilets. He waited for her to say something rude…

…but she didn’t. She wanted him to come down.

He didn’t want to. But he also couldn’t think of any way to explain _why_ – to tell her… what? That he pissed himself like some bratty kid?

But she was waiting.

And he was going to have to talk to her eventually.

Giving up on the idea of explaining in words, he simply muttered “Don’t laugh,” and dropped down from his perch.

He didn’t look at her, cheeks burning and ears pinned flat, even though he’d taken off the scarf she’d had him wear that morning.

He could hear her surprised breath when she noticed the stain darkening the fabric of his clothing.

She didn’t say anything for what felt like forever – the silence filled him with uneasy anticipation of her reaction, made him tense, hands curling into loose fists.

Then she said,

“Well, it’s no big deal.”

He whipped his head to look at her, startled.

“Like hell it’s not!”

Kagome shrugged, and gave him a smile. Not a mocking smile, or an uncomfortable, stiff expression – just genuinely kind, and maybe a touch sympathetic.

“Really, it isn’t. I’m sorry you had such awful luck… but don’t worry about it.” She twirled a finger through her hair.

“I’ll ask Mama and Souta to find you something to wear; and when we get home, we can wash and dry your clothes if you don’t mind waiting a few hours.”

A few _hours_? That was… way quicker than _he_ could dry his clothes, on the rare occasions he washed them. And granted, he was fine wearing them even when they were wet (or if he was alone, hanging around the forest naked all day while he waited for them to dry, not that he would _ever_ admit that to Kagome) but. He wouldn’t _have_ to?

“Although it will probably make them smell like flowers – I know you always complain about that with mine.” She added apologetically, unaware of InuYasha’s awed fascination at the idea.

“Heh, are you kidding?” He shook his head.

“It’d take them all day to dry! Tch, I can put up with smelling a little weird if it means skipping _that_!”

He grinned at her, a slightly subdued – but still enthusiastic – echo of his usual cocky expressions, and Kagome smiled back, relaxing at his easy acceptance.

It was true he complained about the strong smell of Kagome’s clothing when she first came through the well. But experience had taught him that harsh as it was, the scent faded quickly amid that of dirt and plants and all the other things that came with their lives.

He wouldn’t smell like impossibly overpowering lilac for _too_ long.

And besides that, as annoying as he usually found it…

…it was a _Kagome_ smell.

And smelling like _Kagome_ didn’t sound so bad at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I love comments, questions, critiques... they give me life! Please feel free to talk to me here, or look me up on tumblr at omoyasha.tumblr.com
> 
> Now for research! I did this all a while ago, so no sources to link at the moment (though I may go back and add them at some point if I have time):
> 
> -The type of privy InuYasha grew up with is a half-circle shaped trench, with both ends connecting to a stream or river so the water can, as he mentions, help to *ahem* clear things out. There would be a basket full of special sticks called chuugi or shiketsu (basically translating to "shit sticks") which were basically used instead of toilet paper when you went #2. Really clean by western standards at the time! ...not quite so much by modern standards, although InuYasha just hates bathrooms in general, so that's not really relevant here.
> 
> -InuYasha typically pees fully clothed in a squatting position, by essentially adjusting things so he can pee out the leg of his clothing, then putting it back when he's done. This is an actual way of using the bathroom in hakama - which makes sense, since they are both difficult to take on and off, and do not have a fly. In this fic, he has probably seen men pee standing up plenty... but not when they were ALSO wearing pants!
> 
> -In the era he grew up in, there was some concept of bathroom privacy, but also... some cities still literally just had an open street where poorer people all relieved themselves in plain sight. InuYasha was INITIALLY raised in a somewhat classy environment, but he was also orphaned pretty young and very poorly socialized, especially after that. Which I am interpreting (along with his general awkwardness) to even out to him having approximately the bathroom ettiquette you'd expect from an immature eight year old by modern standards, and absolutely winning the "most likely to get decked at a urinal" contest.


End file.
